Plataforma Atacama starts its activities Plataforma Atacama 2012 begins its activities by inviting artists to the Atacama Desert intending to expand in future projects to other isolated areas of the country. The Atacama desert is located in the north of the country at an altitude of 2,348km, and is known as the driest desert in the world. It covers an area of about 105,000 km2 and is surrounded by volcanoes, salt flats and the Andes Mountains. It has some of the wildest and most attractive landscapes in the world and stands out for its rich, cultural tradition and ancestral indigenous villages which are located in small oasis within the great expanses of land.
  


The Town

 The Atacama town is an ancestral settlement whose first inhabitants date back to 10,000 BC. Today they live in small valleys and rifts of the river Loa province and are known as Atacameños, but originally they where called Likan-Antai people ("people of this land" in kunza language). The Likan-Antai achieved cultural significance during the XVth century, before the arrival of the Incas. The early arrival of the Spanish to American territory then ended the Inca’s 100 year rule and the Atacameños were persuaded to live within the Spanish socio-political and cultural system. These are subsistence farming villages and consist of agricultural fields which bear crops of wheat, corn, vegetables as well as supporting livestock. They are currently established as indigenous communities, which exist within a mutually supportive infrastructure which allows them to work together. The area San Pedro de Atacama consists of 14 provinces: Conde Duque, Yaye, Sequitor, Larache, Solcor, Solor, Cucuter, Beter, Poconche, Coyo, Tulor, Quitor, Catarpe y Tambillo.






Photography Credit: Guy Brett - Tomás Espinosa - Hamish Fulton - Marcelo Moscheta - Alexia Tala.

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